Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

scientificamerican.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

491–500 of 980 posts

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#491

Post by xvector »

tapoxi wrote: post #376
tejohnso wrote: post #257

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I discovered the same recently and have abandoned it. It's unfortunate because the potential is there for a real city wide or nation wide group discussion platform. But who moderates the moderators?

Users moderate the moderators, if they don't like the tone of a subreddit they split off into another subreddit.

Nah, what we are seeing is that they just leave the site, and the site becomes more radicalized overall.

Banning the_donald was the beginning of the end for Reddit, at least as far as balanced discourse went. At that time, the r/all was relatively balanced and you'd see major news stories from both POVs.

Now it's a hysterical echo chamber full of thinly veiled death threats towards the sitting president.

Disclaimer: I have money invested in RDDT.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#492

Post by fifilura »

archagon wrote: post #330
fifilura wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. Would this be implementable today but on a larger scale? "Someone who cares about you on the internet" instead of "Something that prevents you from posting hate/snuff/nude on the internet" Obviously lots of problems, tons of them, and 1984 vibes, but still, the basic idea. A bit more like humans were meant to interact?

Corporate social media does not care about its users. They are just biomass to fuel various goals: ad revenue, political influence, etc. In fact, the more addicted you are, the better.

And the weather does not care about farmers either.

It is obviously a completely unfinished thought.

But something about humans innate tendency to self-organise into tribes and villages.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#493

Post by like_any_other »

Epa095 wrote: post #278
yowayb wrote: post #9

Those of us in the west tend to forget that much of what we see is a form of propaganda, whether by governments or businesses, or even a large number of people. When you keep this in mind, everything you see becomes an opinion and your mind can comfortably (or at least not emotionally/hurriedly) form your own opinion over time.

This reminds me of two quotes: "The point of modern propaganda isn't only to misinform or push an agenda. It is to exhaust your critical thinking, to annihilate truth." -Garry Kasparov. And "This constant lying is not aimed at making the people believe a lie, but at ensuring that no one believes anything anymore." This latter quote is, rather ironically, a false quote! (falsely attributed to Hannah Arendt). But I sti…

> constant lying

Selective truth is far more effective, and more common, propaganda. Not in omitting important context from a story, but by omitting or burying (or simply never seeking out) entirely stories you don't want heard, and emphasizing stories you do want heard. In essence, holding up a funhouse mirror to society.

This is the propaganda you get when all your reporters think they are being honest and uncensored, but they all deeply care about the same set of issues, and are deeply ambivalent about another set.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#494

Post by [deleted] »

vaccineai wrote: post #479
CamperBob2 wrote: post #237

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, I think most Trump supporters are never heard from online. They're just people who go about their daily lives without putting a lot of thought into politics. They checked the box on their ballot corresponding to a name they'd heard a lot lately. I suspect they will have good reasons to pay more attention next time, if there is a next time.

Trump supporters watch Fox News, and listens to Joe Rogan. They are pretty in tune with the current politics, but they just don't try to go online and fight against the left.

[deleted]

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#495

Post by mjmsmith »

blackeyeblitzar wrote: post #235
ge96 wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I quit reddit too recently, I still look at it for info but I'm not logged in/scrolling through it I find myself reaching for something when I have YouTube/chilling at my desk at the end of the day, can't code anymore/make something just on till I sleep. Sometimes have the desire to play a video game (I have a gaming rig too funny how that works) I've been trying to read HN or IEEE, TechCrunch stuff like that as my "…

[flagged]

Oh please. Posts from /r/conservative show up in /r/popular all the time, and it remains a hotbed of conspiracy theorists, grifters, and old fashioned racists.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#496

Post by purple-leafy »

I gave up social media for this reason. EVERYTHING is so politicised and agenda-centric on all platforms and news sites.

It was effecting me really badly, to the point that I made the decision to leave the room when the news is playing, switch to a dumb phone, switch to an mp3 player, and get rid of all social media including reddit. So I don’t use a smartphone, and don’t carry it with me day-day.

On my laptop I even went as far as blacklisting all the typical sites.

I’m only 30. It’s very hard when it feels like you’re alone in acting this way. It’s a very isolating life trying to have principals.

I also recently learnt I have adhd, so that may be why I’m so sensitive to it.

But like i say, it’s an isolating feeling.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#497

Post by slg »

HEmanZ wrote: post #384
slg wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>2. This case (and 99% of cases of political outrage I see on the news) is trivial in the context of what is “normal” for human political history, even the political history that many people alive today were around for. >Will this even register as a trivia question in 100 years? Is a framing I ask myself when I’m mad about something in the world. To me, this is an utterly nihilistic framing that renders one's entire…

How are you making the jump from calibrating your emotional response to distant political changes that have no immediate significance on your own life, are par for humanity, and don’t matter in the long run, to nihilism in your immediate experience of meaning? I don’t connect distant political to my own personal experience of meaning in the world, so i can’t follow this line of reasoning.

>How are you making the jump from calibrating your emotional response to distant political changes that have no immediate significance on your own life, are par for humanity, and don’t matter in the long run, to nihilism in your immediate experience of meaning?

The primary difference I see between these two is how you define "your immediate experience". At what distance does something become "distant political changes" that can be ignored? Because almost all of us lead "par for humanity" lives that "don’t matter in the long run" so why care about any of it if that is the extent of what matters?

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#498

Post by slg »

MarkPNeyer wrote: post #425
slg wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Statements like this seem to originate in that environment polluted by propaganda that the previous comment mentions. For example, I genuinely don't know how someone can look at something like the dismantling of USAID as anything but an increase in "large pain". Sure, there are almost certainly individual programs within that organization that are wasteful and aren't the best use of our tax dollars, but there is (or…

> I genuinely don't know how someone can look at something like the dismantling of USAID as anything but an increase in "large pain". Maybe try asking people why they think it’s bad? Here’s people arguing it’s doing all kinds of destructive behavior, - like setting up a fake vaccine clinic for the CIA. https://youtu.be/wtgT_u2rWs0?si=bFX476_JgC81vJuM I haven’t seen anyone arguing against these claims. They just say “…

Are you arguing that USAID is entirely some CIA operation or are you arguing for throwing the baby out with the bathwater? Because this is not evidence that the entire organization is a net negative for the world.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#499

Post by returningfory2 »

lenerdenator wrote: post #488
returningfory2 wrote: post #464

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By successfully pressuring Democratic politicians like Kamala Harris to publicly adopt progressive positions that are unpopular, but highly favored by the kind of people who donate to and operate organizations like the ACLU. For example, the (unfortunately very successful) Trump ad “Harris is for they/them, Trump is for you” ultimately originates with the ACLU. In 2019 they successfully got Harris to pledge governmen…

In 2019? That was before 2020, and that election resulted in Harris being vice president.

Is your claim seriously that Kamala Harris's image on cultural issues like trans rights did not harm her election campaign? One of Trump's most successful campaign ads was the one that included her talking about government-funded gender affirming care for people in prison. It even has its own Wikipedia page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kamala_is_for_they/them). The fact that this stuff started in 2019 that she won as VP in 2020 is irrelevant; it _clearly_ was an issue in the 2024 that hurt her.

But that's just one example of many. There's also, say, Biden's handling of the border. Even though in 2022 it was clearly deeply unpopular and playing right into Trump's reelection campaign, he didn't change course (until too late) because of pressure from groups like the ACLU.

Overall, IMO one of the biggest factors in Trump's reelection is that the left and the center-left _talked_ about Trump being a big problem, but were unwilling to actually alter their policies or behavior or messaging to broaden their appeal and ensure Trump lost.

Re: Avoiding outrage fatigue while staying informed

#500

Post by Spooky23 »

purple-leafy wrote: post #496

I gave up social media for this reason. EVERYTHING is so politicised and agenda-centric on all platforms and news sites. It was effecting me really badly, to the point that I made the decision to leave the room when the news is playing, switch to a dumb phone, switch to an mp3 player, and get rid of all social media including reddit. So I don’t use a smartphone, and don’t carry it with me day-day. On my laptop I even…

I did the same thing but brought back Facebook and Instagram. The controls are great if you spend time filtering — I actually enjoy both now.

If you want to stay informed. Apple News. Same deal, filter away. Ditch The NY Times and pick a few newspapers domestic and international. You’ll get news without the bullshit:

Post reply on HN